Chapter 46

Drug

Shivers wracked Vincent's body and his nostrils flared against the strong scent of antiseptic. He curled his fingers and a soft fabric bunched into his hand, feeling like a heavy sheet. Vincent blinked against a fluorescent overhead, certain he was back in a laboratory, even before Dr. Berry leaned over him and squinted into Vincent's eyes.

"Ah," the old doctor said. "Still with us, I see."

Vincent's head pounded and he brought a hand up to shield against the light. He didn't guess at the cause of his invalid status on a hospital bed. It was the new treatment Simon had administered. Dizziness, headache and a muscle and bone-aching pain coiled throughout his body, centered at his sternum.

"How long was I out?" he asked, voice gruff as he gave a grunt and struggled to prop himself up on his elbows.

"Well, my guess is as long as it took your colleagues to carry you here," Berry chuckled. "They only just cleared out. I can be forceful when needed." He smiled at Vincent over the rim of his glasses.

"You…are the first person in history, Mr. Valentine," Berry wheezed as he reached a shaking hand and awkwardly pulled at Vincent's eyelid, shining more light into Vincent's already throbbing head. Berry moved to the other eye after a brief glance before continuing. "Who wants to age faster…after reaching the legal drinking age." The old doctor chuckled until he erupted into a cough and eased his body onto a stool by the bed.

Vincent rose to his elbow and sucked in a breath, surprised at the difficulty the simple movement was for him. He settled against the pillows, panting slightly at his efforts. His heart pounded in his chest, and he offered the good doctor a smirk. "Life goes on without me, Doc. Can't blame me for wanting a life, too."

"Yes," Dr. Berry said and groaned as he lowered himself onto the stool next to Vincent's bed. "I suppose you're already aware that the experimental treatment is having…an unexpected and rather…adverse effect."

Vincent nodded as Berry checked his pulse.

"I wonder," Berry continued. "If you're doing this…for anyone in particular?"

Vincent turned his head toward the door a moment before he heard the soft knock. The door cracked open, and Tifa peered in. "Knock, knock," she said.

Berry smiled and groaned as he lifted himself from the stool. He placed a hand atop Vincent's and patted him. "You seem…to be in good hands…Mr. Valentine. I'll return in a moment with a pick-me-up."

She waited until the doctor shuffled out to let the concern in her eyes flash with a hint of anger. "Is this the new treatment?"

He ran a knuckle over her wrist and nodded. "You knew?"

She nodded, too.

"It is," he answered. "The serum was only a little too strong."

"A little?!" She reached a hand to his forehead, feeling for heat. "You passed out, Vincent!"

"Treatments are not without side effects." He ignored her huff and linked his fingers through hers. "What are you doing at the hospital?"

"What am I doing? Yuffie said you looked sick. Then I heard you fell face first into Reeve's shoes!"

The door reopened and Berry entered, followed closely by Dr. Simon who carried a tray covered with glowing vials and Vincent's favorite needles. "Good to see you again, Ms. Lockhart. If you don't mind, I'll just…come around the side here."

Tifa backed away with her face drawn into an angry pout. Vincent knew she wasn't yet half done with scolding him.

Simon hummed as he drew blood from Vincent's arm, appearing less concerned than Vincent thought he should after his clinical trial had such an adverse affect. The doctor smiled at Vincent's unwavering gaze. "I'm going to test your blood Vincent. Needless to say, I don't believe our trial had the same effect on your cells that we saw in the lab results. So, I'll make this my priority."

Vincent said nothing as Simon placed a sticky bandage over the needle prick in his skin. "We'll have this sorted in no time."

Berry watched Simon exit the room before turning back to Vincent. A worried crease ticked in his brow as he reached for the serums on the tray. "And now for our cautionary regimen."

Vincent eyed the glowing liquid in the tubes, the color a little more blue than the green Simon usually injected. "What's this?"

"A healing agent we give to SOLDIERs. It accelerates…healing time, of course, for injuries that nearly cause…loss of limb or life." Berry smiled at Vincent as he wiped a swab over his arm. "Uh…Vincent. I think it would be best if you stayed overnight…for observation."

As Vincent opened his mouth to refuse, Tifa spoke. "I agree. I know you don't want to, but maybe Dr. Simon can figure out what went wrong. And maybe you should delay your trip anyway."

He shook his head before she even finished. "There's no need. My body is adjusting to the introduction of a new agent."

"You fainted, Vincent! That's not adjusting! It shut down!"

"I'm used to my body's sudden changes. I've been dealing with it for 30 years. Laying in this bed won't make anything go away overnight."

"It'll prevent you from passing out in the snow where no one can find you!"

"Uh…excuse me," Berry said and quietly shuffled from the room.

Tifa sighed and laid over the bed, resting her head on Vincent's chest. "You could fall into one of those long sleeps again. We may not even know where to look for you," she said, softly.

Vincent pressed a hand against her back, the guilt beginning to eat at him before the words that wouldn't ring true left his lips. "I'll wait a few days." His cells began a frenzied buzz with the lie.

With fists clenched, he took a slow breath to bottle the surge. The pulsation grew so intense he thought surely Tifa must feel the vibrations against her skin.

"Tifa," he whispered, afraid to speak any louder and betray his loss of control with a trembling voice.

She raised her head to look at him, eyes teary. "Hmm?"

He forced his jaw to relax before speaking again, afraid she would noticed the clench of his teeth. "The…counteragent Berry gave me…before you came in. Getting a little sleepy."

"Oh?" She rose and tucked a sheet over his shoulders. "I'll stay with you while you sleep."

He swallowed hard against the surging corruptions. His minimal control wouldn't last. She needed to leave.

"No…no. I'd…prefer if you just…went about your day—"

"I'm not leaving you alone, Vincent. You had no one on your side before. That's not gonna happen as long as I'm alive and with two strong arms to help!"

This woman.

"I know." He gritted his teeth as a sharp pain sliced up his spine from the strain. He took another labored breath to steady himself. "It's just…I feel better and I…I'd prefer you didn't see me this way."

She feigned a pout. "Tough guy, huh?"

He smirked. "Yeah, something like that."

"Fine," she sighed and kissed him. Disappointment showed on her face when he ended it too soon. "Just promise you'll stay until Berry thinks you're ok to leave."

"Ok," he said. "I promise."

When her lips pressed against his again, he held his breath to ease the shaking in his limbs. If she didn't leave soon, she'd be shocked to see herself kissing the Galean, or worse, Hellmasker.

"Ok. I'll be back later when you're sleeping. No!" She said, pressing her fingers against his lips as he started to disagree. "I don't want to hear it. I'm just going to pack a bag and I'll be back by dinner."

She finally eased herself off his bed, a worried look in her eyes as she gave a gentle wave and finally exited the room.

He delayed as long as he felt possible before sitting up and testing his feet on the cold floor. His legs shook as he tried for the door, slowly moving and anger rising at the urgency.

The door swung open again and Vincent nearly cried out in relief. "Simon! I feel—ungh—"

Vincent fell to a knee, pressing a fist to his sternum and clutching the hospital bed with the other hand.

Simon darted into action, pulling Vincent to his feet and leaning him against the bed. "Lay back," he urged and reached for a needle primed on the tray. He jabbed Vincent in the thigh with no warning.

Vincent blew out his breath, falling into the pillows and counting the seconds until the corrupted cells tempered their frenzy. The doctor leaned over him and mouthed something. A question Vincent didn't catch. His energy plummeted, like he'd just come out of a transformation that lasted a week. He closed his eyes against the bright light overhead. "Could you…turn out the light? Dr. Simon?"

Glancing at the good doctor, Vincent noticed him writing feverishly into Vincent's file. "Of course, Vincent. Just rest now and I'll get to work on the right dosage."

Vincent wasn't sure if he was sleeping or if time seemed to warp with the feeling of a drug high. He struggled to gain hold of his senses in a way that didn't make him feel anything but vertigo. This was not his usual reaction to the V-serum. But he didn't doubt, the compounds in his treatment would need to be strong indeed to affect any change in his immortal cells.

As the waves of dizziness finally abated, sunlight dimmed through the window, a clear indication that the day reached dusk. Fright filled his mind as he tried to fathom if he'd fallen asleep. Or if he'd only experienced a trippy mako bender. The door swung open, and Vincent felt a momentary fear that he might've fallen so far into slumber that years had passed.

Berry's cane appeared first to Vincent's view, and he let out a relieved sigh that he hadn't been unconscious for a thousand nights.

"How long was I out?" Vincent asked for the second time, sitting up as the doctor shuffled to his bedside.

"Oh, a few hours this time." Berry gazed at him with a fatherly expression over his bifocals. "Now. Tell me what happened. Leave nothing out."

Vincent explained to the old doctor in the best terms he could how the new serum carved a path of fire through his veins, which then ebbed to a coldness like he'd been injected with water from a spring. The last thing he remembered before passing out was the corruptions gaining strength in his sternum.

"And then I woke in this bed. You were staring over me."

"Hm. Simon explained that you then had another episode. An…uncontrolled transformation?" At Vincent's nod, Berry pulled his glasses from his face and wiped the lenses on his smock. It seemed to be something he did to think. "Dr. Simon may disagree, but I don't think you should continue…this treatment, Vincent."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Well, I'm not sure what happened…inside your body. That is the issue at hand. During Simon's tests we…observed corrupted cells shrink. It…was our belief we could shrink them enough and introduce…a bacteria to neutralize the cells." Berry turned his chin in a subtle movement, as though looking over his shoulder toward the door. "It was assumed your body's…natural immune system would gain…immunity to the bacteria over time. Part of Dr. Shelley's research…has been developing vaccines to use…against bacteria found in venom."

Vincent's brows drew together. He knew Sybil Shelley had been helping Simon develop several treatments across the lab's increasing pipeline of studies. But he still didn't know why Rayleigh and Simon were so trusting of the young scientist. Vincent had seen too many signs pointing to her deviousness.

"You have doubts about this course of action?" Vincent asked.

"It isn't that, Vincent," Berry said, placing a hand on Vincent's forearm. "We don't have a single test…or trial that shows an outcome. Right now, I have no idea how…your body will respond. And given that it's already…shut down to a near-minimal survival mode…twice in the last eight hours, I'd say we need to re-evaluate…before continuing this regimen."

Back in Nibelheim, before Vincent had been made into his current state, Berry was one of the few voices of reason. He often insisted on a more conservative course in the human trials the others often ignored. Vincent had assumed it was the doctor's kind heart that prevented him from fully backing the Jenova Project experiments.

But Vincent also recalled that Berry had been wrong a good number of times. At least when it came to Hojo's results. Berry had been convinced the baby wouldn't survive Lucrecia's hybrid pregnancy.

Vincent smiled at the doctor, comforted at once at seeing the man's continued humanity prevail over his scientific curiosity. "Good thing you're here, doc," he said and began to swing his legs over the side of the bed. "The labs have always needed your voice."

Berry placed his hands on Vincent's shoulders. "Wait a second, Vincent. You shouldn't get out of bed."

"I'm feeling stronger by the minute, doc." He knew it to be true. His energy had returned and the corrupted cells had calmed to their gentle buzz in his sternum. Vincent could feel no trace of Simon's new serum coursing in his veins. His gut instinct told him the serum had dissolved and no longer posed a threat. His head no longer swarmed with a fuzzy drug high. "I need to get back to work and find our old friend before he knows I'm coming."

"I still think you should stay, Vincent," Berry said as he pushed his hands against Vincent's shoulders. "Two fainting spells in one day and…we still don't know the cause."

Out of respect, Vincent eased onto the bed without rising, allowing the doctor his gentle insistence before Berry lowered his arms. "How long?"

Berry tucked his hands into his smock. "At least until morning. Just so we know you'll have no additional…spells of unconsciousness."

Vincent reluctantly lifted his legs back onto the bed, knowing the only reason he acquiesced was to prevent the good doctor from rousing an army of do-gooders intent on keeping him in the labs. Berry would call Tifa. Vincent didn't doubt.

Berry sighed and seemed to relax as Vincent leaned back against the pillows again. "Good. I'll have one of the nurses come…in a few minutes to give you another dose of the healing agent. We'll afix a slow drip this time. I don't want…the corrupted cells overreacting like earlier. The agent will have more time…to absorb into your system."

Once the doctor had left, Vincent let his eyes drag over the room, searching for his boots. He spied them in a chair by the window. He calculated that he'd wait at least until after the nurse arrived and set up his mako solution before donning his boots. A nurse would likely sound an alarm if she found no patient waiting for care.

But, the weather, his condition, couldn't wait any longer. He needed to find the scientist.

A guilt swept through his mind as he thought of the promise he'd made to Tifa. Even so, Cloud's look of disgust last night materialized next to her pretty face. The judgment. Vincent had wasted enough time.

The scene would've been too familiar if Tifa wasn't lugging an overnight bag on her shoulder. Barret had a lady friend. On the occassion Barret gave her a call, she'd jump into his truck with the same bag. He just wasn't used to seeing Tifa with one, even if she'd been seeing Vincent a good minute.

But the clink, scrape and click of metal on metal, Barret knew that too well. He also knew that scowl on the merc's face had nothing to do with the bugs splattered on the cracked headlight Cloud was trying to pry off that monster motorbike.

Barret held the door open of Tifa's little green truck open as she threw her bag into the seat. "You leavin town, Teef?"

"Nope," she said, smiling with her hands on her hips. "Just gonna stay with Vincent tonight. Keep an eye on him."

"An eye on him?" Barret asked. "He in trouble or something? You gettin on his case already?" He chuckled at his own humor, looking over his shoulder for some gentlemanly agreement from Cloud, but the merc only looked grumpier. Made it painfully obvious he wasn't listening to the small talk.

"Yeah, whatever," Barret said after his joke got not response from anyone. Tifa didn't look all that mad for it, either. But as Barret looked closer, he knew something else was up. She never got that look except when she thought Cloud might be in trouble, worrying too much about him to take care of herself. "Vince doin' alright?"

"Mm hm," she said a little too chipper, but offered nothing more as she climbed into the truck, not even making eye contact. "I'll be back tomorrow to pick up the kids from school."

"What the hell is that all about?" Barret glanced at Cloud, who only gazed fireballs at the tail end of the green truck pulling out of the drive. "Did they have a fight or something?"

A clanging rent through the garage as Cloud let out a string of curses. Barret caught a glint of steel spinning to a stop under Cloud's worktable.

"Hey now," Barret said, shuffling across the garage before bending to a knee to pick up the wrench. He tossed it into the tool box before staring at the merc with a fatherly glare. "Let's keep the four-letter words to a minimum. Marlene don't need to hear any more a that an' I been havin a hard time keeping Denz from his foul-mouthed friends lately."

"They're not listening."

True. The kids were oblivious and laughing at the end of the drive, each trying a trick on Denzel's skateboard. "Still though. Denz is bad enough."

Tifa chewed on a fingernail as she drove away from Seventh and headed back to the hospital. Should she have told them Vincent was spending the night in the hospital? They were all family and would want to know.

Her gut told her Vincent wouldn't want them to know. He'd never prohibited her or asked her to keep quiet. Just the thought of them showing up at Vincent's bed, worried and fussing, let Tifa know she made the right decision. She'd tell them after he was better.

He would get better. And she'd convince him to stop the nonsense with these treatments. It wasn't worth losing him to another decades-long slumber that would see her middle-aged and past her prime while Vincent remained young.

Reeve finally made it to the hospital wing. Once assured Vincent was in good hands, he had returned to his workday, jogging from meeting to meeting. Now that he was free and night had fallen, he could check on his old friend and assure himself all was well.

He knocked twice. "Vincent?" As he walked into the room, the scene wasn't a surprise. Vincent sat in a chair, hunched over as he laced up his boots, medical tape dangling from his right hand where he'd clearly ripped out the IV catheter for the mako solution attached to the pole near the bed. "Uh…leaving so soon? Doctor Berry recommended an overnight stay, Vincent."

Vincent didn't bother looking up as he buckled his sabatons to each boot. "There's no cause for concern," he said and stood, finally glancing at Reeve, though he averted his gaze just as quickly. Reeve thought he perceived a tinge of guilt in the man's fiery eyes. "I'm leaving now for Modeoheim. Taking my traditional mode of transportation."

"Traditional mode?" Reeve questioned as Vincent passed him and opened the door.

Vincent smirked over his shoulder. "I'd rather not have the WRO or Turks give away my position with their noisy aerial toys. Wouldn't want our target to escape."

"Ah," Reeve said, understanding. "Keep me apprised of your findings. I'll send Pete's team to rendezvous for extraction."

"Of course."

Once Vincent had left, Reeve leaned against the bed, thoughtful. The man didn't seem concerned in the least over a fainting spell. Knowing Vincent, he'd feign good health, assure everyone he was fine though evidence suggested otherwise. The situation didn't sit well with Reeve. He'd discuss with Rayleigh first thing in the morning, ask her to perform an internal investigation on the meds developed for his friend.

A soft knock at the door interrupted his musing. "Oh. Uh…come in."

Reeve's heart sank as Tifa peered past the door, a backpack—overnight bag—hanging off one shoulder and a container that smelled like takeout. "Reeve," she said, obvious surprise in her voice. She looked around the room, not finding the one she sought. "Where's Vincent?"

A knot formed in the commissioner's throat. He silently cursed Vincent. No doubt the man knew damn well his girlfriend was on her way. Now it was up to Reeve to cover for him and, in the process, lie to a friend. "He…uh…had an urgent mission, Tifa. Something we couldn't put off. He'll be back in a couple of—"

Her bag flew across the room, scattering her toiletries and sending her phone slamming against the wall. Reeve cringed as he looked down at the shattered screen.

"You let him go to Modeoheim? On his own?" She asked through a tight voice. The accusation was clear. "In his condition?"

Reeve held up his hands. "He was already dressed when I came in, Tifa. He assured me he was feeling fine. You know there was nothing I could do stop him."

He could tell by the way her jaw moved that she was grinding her teeth. Reeve didn't dare glance at her hands. He was certain they had tightened into fists and he'd like to not be on the business end if—when—she struck.

"I know you're sending a squad to help him."

Reeve didn't deny as she unleashed a rage through her eyes at him. "I…had planned on sending Cloud along with them, Tifa. He mentioned his interest in helping to capture the scientist."

"Well, add another to the team," she said. "They're not leaving without me."

The commissioner nodded, more than happy to calm her and allow anything she wanted. He really hated the feeling that he was caught in a lover's quarrel.